Rain Forest Rose Read Free Page B

horse, and stands up its best friend. You have a lot of pals, yeah, in California, who do that all the time?”
    â€œNo, but it’s not like magic—”
    â€œMana’s not magic. It’s an instinct, a silent power, an understanding. You have it for horses, and so do I. But you don’t trust your mana. I do.”
    Once more, Darby remembered the stallion Lunafacing Jonah. Like silent thunder, the man’s will had rolled over the horse. And Luna had obeyed without hesitation.
    â€œSo, when I come back from the rain forest,” Darby spoke slowly, thinking before each word, “how are you going to tell if I figured out my two manas?”
    â€œThis isn’t school. There’s no test.” Jonah smiled. “Or if there is, you’ll be the one to recognize it. Not me.”
    My “instinctive” mana and my “what I’ve learned from others” mana, Darby thought as they rode on. Okay, that shouldn’t be too hard.
    â€œWhen you get where you’re going,” Jonah said over his shoulder, “put Navigator’s reins up and turn him loose with a slap on the rump. He’ll head for home. And Cade will be bringing you more food and checking on you.”
    â€œOkay,” Darby said. But as the vegetation narrowed the path, she realized Jonah’s instructions probably meant they’d reached the spot where he’d turn around and go back to the ranch.
    They hadn’t ridden that far. Surely, she thought, as her mind darted back to Megan’s lost horse, someone should have seen Tango in almost two years. And even in wild Hawaii, shouldn’t the police have looked over the scene of a sudden death? Maybe they had. Maybe Jonah didn’t want her to hear the grisly details of a paniolo’s death,when she was still just learning to ride.
    â€œThis is where I leave you,” Jonah said, halting Kona at the gate out of the broodmare pasture.
    â€œOkay.” Darby heard the faintness of her own voice as she pictured herself riding on with the two horses. Then walking on, with one.
    â€œThanks, Grandpa.” Darby surprised even herself by saying it, and she would have hugged him if she could have done so without falling off her horse. “I’ll do my best.”
    Jonah made a hmph ing noise, before he said, “There’s mostly geldings in Pearl Pasture.”
    A twitch of reins made Kona sidestep until Jonah could open the gate for Darby to ride through. “Being the tomboy she is, Hoku won’t likely flirt with ’em, but she might want to join in a run. Don’t let her. Stop her before she jerks you off Navigator’s back, yeah?”
    â€œI will,” Darby said. She gave a quiet cluck to encourage Hoku to follow Navigator through the gate. Hoku came along, but her narrowed eyes said she did it because Darby asked her to, not because she trusted Jonah enough to turn her tail on him.
    â€œGonna be one strong mare,” Jonah said approvingly, and then he made the one-handed gesture with three fingers folded inside and waggled it from side to side. Megan had told her it was called shaka and it meant “hi” or “good-bye” or any kind of greeting in between.
    Holding Hoku’s rope tight in her right hand, Darby returned the gesture with her left and made Jonah chuckle.
    Jonah’s laughter still echoed in Darby’s ears long after the gate to Pearl Pasture was locked behind her.

Chapter 2
    W hen Darby first noticed she was wheezing, she was glad there was no way for her mom to give her one of the stinging injections she’d learned to administer. There’d be no late-night trip to the urgent-care clinic, either, and though she probably shouldn’t have felt relieved by that, Darby did.
    Besides, she had the medihaler in her pocket, just in case. The tight feeling in Darby’s chest vanished as a beautiful troop of horses, led by a palomino, suddenly appeared.
    Hoku